Chapter 70: Watchful Eyes
The Never Ending Quest - Episode 61357
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Zular was a Duke without a Duchy and he feared he would soon be a man
without a soul. Zular Mollari had always enjoyed pleasure - of the
palate, of the mind, of the loins. He had always taken what he wanted for
he was of noble blood and this was his right. He never viewed his disdain
for others as wrong and saw compassion as nothing but weakness, but he
never took himself to be an evil man, rather, a realist.
It was the Little Girl whom he took as evil. It was she who had ignored his bloodline and had taken him as her slave (ep. 18911). It was she who had taught Duke Zular Mollari the meaning of fear, true fear and terror. It was also the Little Girl who had given him his means of escape that day he was to meet with the rebels. She had told him to go to a specific river near Obsallom, she had given him a magick word and had ordered him to leap into the running waters. He followed every command knowing that disobedience was futile. When he arose from those waters, gasping for air, he found himself in a cave, her cave. He was quickly surrounded by the denizens of these caves, kobolds fierce and cruel. They took him to a large room hewn from the stone. He saw a grand chair and a large table, but the Little Girl was nowhere to be seen. He smelled sulpher and other strange odours, saw odd smokes billowing from the back edges of this rock chamber, and then he noticed the cage. It held a man. Zular approached the prisoner, he was old with shriveled skin which was cracked in places, the man's eyes spoke clearly of much misery. "Who are you?" "My name," came the dry voice of the caged man, "my name is Alfred." Then Alfred began to shiver almost uncontrollably. "Listen," he said in a whisper. "Listen to me, you must save me, save me! You are free but the little demonthing will trap you soon! Help me, free me! LISTEN! She is not perfect, not all powerful, she has limits! I've been watching... I'm a ranger you see! We can escape where she won't find us, HELP ME!" The Duke looked at the Ranger. He spit at him. "You dare tempt me with freedom?!? You dare fill me with HOPE?!!? You miserable filthy fool!" Alfred was confused, he had not eaten a thing in the last two days and his mind was tired. Then Zular giggled. "She set a watchdog on me, on me! Want to see?" Alfred didn't understand the words of this crazed nobleman. "It's ok," cooed Zular. Then the Duke unbuttoned his shirt. He pulled the cloth away from his left shoulder. Alfred screamed. Zular giggled yet again. On his shoulder, growing from the very flesh, was an eye - large, bulbous, blinking, moving and looking - looking with insight and awareness at the man in the cage. Alfred cowered as far from the eye as he could within his ever so small cage. Duke Zular began to laugh, and then to sob. ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ------ ---- LeigeKing Emry Exultaine rode into Obsallom even as would a ruler of the world. By his side was Sir Toby, the King's most trusted knight and member of the Troupes Divina. Beside and behind the grand King were nine other Great Knights and with them was a force of ninety-five soldiers all trained to the point of perfection in the arte of war (19180). Only a fool would confront such a force, and Fred was no fool. Lord Fredrigo D'Honaire had led the attacks against Duke Mollari, it was he who advised the Black Hand on proper tactics and strategies. After the victory Fred had staked his claim to this land and her people (19163) as was the law of Allaria. Fred had the right; but all such rights were moot in the face of the LeigeKing (19180). Fred knew this, as did the King. What Fred did not know was whether King Emry had become aware that his older brother, Prince Cedrik, was now free from the Southern Caves (14887). Fred did not know if the King was aware of his aiding of the Prince or of his loyalty to the Prince. The King, of course, had no idea of any of this - rather, he feared that young Lord Fred had taken to the idea of usurping power with his newfound fame; and in union with this thought the King was looking forward to asking the so-called Dragon Slayer why he had not taken that beast's corpse straight to Caemlyn, and how it was that he came to Trescent instead. The King had seen no dead Dragon and he had clearly thought the Dragon would've bested Fred; did Fred truly kill the beast or did he instead turn to this duchy with an eye to more mundane forms of battle? Fred looked at the approaching King and at the people, and he couldn't believe how the world had changed in the last twenty-four days. It was twenty-four days since the Dragon had been slain; twenty- four days since he and Astra and Velus had discovered a living Prince Cedrik Exultaine; twenty-four days since he had pledged to bring the upstart Emry to justice. And it was twenty-three days ago that Prince Cedrik and Astra had both gone missing, and Fred could not imagine what could have occurred to them. Now, here he was, hero to the people of Trescent and ally to the Fellowship of the Black Hand; it took over a fortnight to overcome the forces loyal to House Mollari, but overcome them they did. The fighting was followed by feasting and now the feasting had been joined by the LeigeKing. Fred knew that the people of this land were loyal to King Emry, they had no reason not to be, they knew not the dark secret that Prince Cedrik yet lived. Fred wondered if this feast would turn to fear, if he would be taken by the King and his Great Knights and be branded a traitor. Fred was very nervous indeed as he rode towards the King, the people were clapping and yelling huzzahs, they cheered and roared - to the peasants and merchants this was their Hero meeting with their Master. King Emry looked magnificent in his shining array and Fred held par in his own armor. Even as Fred prepared to open his lips in fair greeting to King Emry, his heart was praying to the eldergods for Prince Cedrik.
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8/16/2006 10:04:30 PM
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